The Qatar Financial Centre (QFC), one of the world’s leading and fastest growing onshore business and financial centres, participated in ‘Qatar Day’, a unique forum for senior representatives from the UK and Qatar to further develop the strong ties that exist between the two countries’ respective financial services sectors.

Hosted by the City of London Corporation in partnership with the UK’s Department for International Trade and Qatar Central Bank (QCB), the inaugural event saw approximately 120 C-level executives and senior representatives from the UK and Qatar’s key national and financial services institutions that included Qatar Development Bank, Qatar Central Bank and Qatar Financial Markets Authority come together in the city of London.

The event programme focused on asset management, capital markets, Fintech and the cyber security sectors of financial services. Yousuf Mohammed Al-Jaida, CEO, QFC, took part in one of the panel discussions titled ‘Turning Challenges to Competitive Advantages: Asset Management in the 21st Century’ which covered themes such as regulatory improvements and future opportunities for asset management in Qatar. Discussions at the event highlighted Qatar’s strong economic performance and the recognition of the Qatari capital market as “the best and most important” financial market in the Arab region and “one of the top 10 financial markets in the world”, according to The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2017-2018.

In addition, Henk Jan Hoogendoorn, Managing Director of Financial Sector Office, QFC, joined a panel discussion titled: ‘Promoting and Accelerating Fintech Adoption and the Opportunities for Islamic Fintech’, where participants discussed how the UK and Qatar are accelerating the adoption of Fintech, and the mutually beneficial opportunities for the two to collaborate on Islamic finance. The QFC also hosted the Qatar-UK Fintech Roundtable on the sidelines of the event, in partnership with Qatar Development Bank (QDB) and Refinitiv. The roundtable, which was attended by senior executives of key Fintech entities, focused on Qatar’s national Fintech strategy and the opportunities available for UK and Qatar Fintech firms. The QFC CEO also presented to students and academics of the Warwick Business School on the Qatari economy and the QFC’s mandate.

Yousuf Mohamed Al-Jaida, Chief Executive Officer, QFC Authority said: “The UK is one of Qatar’s most valued strategic business partners, and the QFC’s mandate is an integral part of the country’s strategic initiative to build, develop and diversify the business environment to drive foreign investment into the Qatari market. We are therefore very proud of our client base which includes close to 100 UK firms, who continue to benefit from our unique business ecosystem.” Al-Jaida added: “Qatar Day has been a valuable platform to focus on how the UK and Qatar can support the Fintech and Islamic finance capabilities in our respective markets, and I am confident that this is only the beginning of stronger future collaborations that will boost Qatar’s standing as the region’s Fintech hub.”

The QFC is an onshore jurisdiction that allows registered companies to enjoy competitive benefits, such as working within a legal environment based on English common law, the right to trade in any currency, up to 100% foreign ownership, 100% repatriation of profits, 10% corporate tax on locally sourced profits, and an extensive double taxation avoidance agreement network with 81 countries.